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United States Patent 3,517,713 FIBRE CUTTING MACHINE Franklin C. Flippo and Arthur P. Flippo, both of Doswell, Va. 23047 Filed Aug. 2, 1968, Ser. No. 749,818 Int. Cl. B271 11/04 US. Cl. 144-186 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An excelsior making machine having a toothed woodslitting blade and a slicing knife mounted in a reciprocating gate frame in angular relation and movable over a wood block, with the slicing knife contacting and bridging the slitting blade teeth, to provide sizing openings between the teeth and knife edge through which wood strips must pass to enter the final product.

Background of the invention This invention relates to machines for making excelsior.

The conventional eXcelsior-making machine includes means for holding a wood block from which the excelsior strips are cut, and for feeding the block toward the cutting means. The cuting means usually consists of a plurality of laterally spaced slitting points, which score the underside of the wood block longitudinally, and a cutting blade similar to a chisel blade to slice off a prescored shaving from the block. Means are provided for reciprocating either the slitting points and knife, or the wood block, to cause the points and blade to traverse the length of the underside of the block. As the slit wood layer is shaved from the block, the layer separates into narrow strips which curl in familar fashion.

When excelsior is properly cut, the resultant mass of curled narrow wood shavings is soft and provides excellent protection for delicate articles during shipment. With conventional equipment, however, it is impossible to obtain the uniformity of cut necessary to assure a perfect product. The character of the wood grain, the tendency of the blade to cut or split the wood too deeplyj-or the failure of the shaving to divide at each of the slit lines, can result in inequalities, or occasionally wood chips, which impair the quality of the product, and, at times, may even result in damage to an article packed in the excelsior.

If the product can be produced completely uniform, a better product results, and the uses of the material may be increased.

Summary of the invention The principal object of the present invention is to provide a machine for making excelsior which will precision cut the wood and produce a uniform product free from thick strips, or chips.

A more specific object of the invention is to provide such a machine wherein each strip cut from the wood block is actually sized to produce a product of predetermined cross section.

Another object is the provision of a machine of this nature wherein the slitting means is in contact with the shaving blade to form sizing channels through which cut strips must pass, to prevent chips, or enlarged pieces, from getting into the final product.

A further object is to provide an excelsior machine having a toothed slitting blade and a continuous-edged shaving blade in contact to define openings of predetermined size having cutting edges to pre-size the excelsior strips.

Other objects of the invention will become apparent from the following description of one practical embodiment thereof, when taken in conjunction with the drawings which accompany, and form part of, this specification.

Brief description of the drawings Description of the preferred embodiment The present invention has been shown in conjunction with a machine for making short-length excelsior, disclosed in our prior Pat. No. 2,842,174, which patent may be referred to for details of the machine not shown and described herein. Althrough the machine of the prior patent is shown, the present invention is equally useful on machines which do not cut the block transversely to form short excelsior.

Referring to the drawings in detail, the excelsior machine shown is conventional in most respects. The machine has a suitable base frame 1 which has trackways 2 in which a slidable gate frame 3, carrying the cutting knives, is mounted for reciprocation. The gate frame can be moved back and forth in the trackways by any suitable means, such as a crank and pitman (not shown). The gate frame has horizontally spaced, longitudinal members 4 bridged by groups of cross bars 5, 6 and 7.

The blocks of wood to be cut are set upon the machine between horizontally spaced rollers 8, which engage the ends of the blocks and force them down into contact with tables 9 mounted on the gate frame. The rollers 8 are journaled in bearings 10. Worm gears 11 on a shaft 12 cooperate with worm wheels (not shown) on the feed roller shafts to provide the driving means to urge the underside of the wood block toward gate frame tables 9.

Cross bars 6 and 7 of the gate frame are spaced apart, and one, or more, rotatable transverse cutters 13 are mounted in the space between the cross bars. The cutter is in the form of a cylinder 14 supported on a shaft 15. The cylinder is grooved, preferably at diametrically opposite places, to provide for mounting transverse cutting knives 16. The transverse cutter and its operation form no part of the present invention, but is described in detail in the above-mentioned prior patent.

Cross bars 5 and 6 of the gate frame 3 are spaced from one another, and their mutually confronting faces, 17 and 18, provide mounting surfaces to seat the slicing, or shaving, knife 19 and the scoring, or slitting, blade 20. Face 18 of the cross bar 6 is substantially vertical, and face 17 of the cross bar 5 is inclined, sloping from the bottom of the cross bar 5 upwardly and toward the cross bar 6. The upper surface 21 of the cross bar 6 provides a depth gauge for the wooden block to be cut.

The slicing blade 19 is placed against the seating face 17 of the cross bar 5 with its cutting edge 22 toward the cross bar 6-, and is fixed in place 'by means of one or more bolts 23 which pass through openings 24 in the knife and are threaded into openings 25 in the cross bar 5. The knife is adjusted on the face so that its cutting edge 22 projects beyond the gauge surface 21 of cross bar 6 the amount desired for the thickness of the shaving to be taken from the underside of the wooden block. When this adjustment is reached, and the blade is squarely positioned across the gate frame, bolts 23 are tightened to securely lock the blade in place.

Slitting blade is a fiat plate having one toothed edge, which is one of the longitudinal edges of the plate. The toothed edge contains a plurality of tapering teeth 27 projecting upwardly from arcuate intervening valleys 28. The tooth edge 29 is at an angle, and the angle is approximately the same as the angle between the projected face of the slicing blade 19 and the mounting face 18 for the slitting blade. The valleys 28 have a similar angular position so that the bottoms of the valleys are parallel to the edges 29 of the teeth. With this arrangement, slitting points 30 are provided at the forward ends of the teeth and channels 31 of uniform proportions are provided between the teeth. The entire forward edges of the teeth 27 and valleys 28 are sharpened to provide a continuous undulating cutting edge.

The edge of the slitting blade 20 opposite the toothed edge 26 is provided with one or more notches 33, to surround the shanks of mounting bolts 34. Bolts 34 pass through openings in a retaining plate 35 and into threaded openings 36 in the cross brace 6. When the bolts are tightened, they bring the retaining plate 35 into tight engagement with the scoring blade and lock the blade in position against the mounting face 18. Before the blade is fixed in position, it is adjusted so that the tooth edges 29 are in abutment with the face of the slicing, or shaving, knife 19. After the slitting blade is seated in this position, the bolts 34 are tightened to lock the blade against movement.

When the slicing knife and slitting blade are locked in the adjusted position described above, the slicing blade edge overlies, and is in contact with, the tooth edges 29, and forms a top closure for the channels 31 between the slitting teeth. Thus, each pair of adjacent teeth with the interlying valley and the overlying slitting knife edge defines an opening through which any excelsior strip, or shaving, must pass to enter the mass of finished product. The size of this opening positively determines the maximum cross section of any wood shaving which passes into the finished material. There is no passage for the shavings except through the openings between the slitting blade teeth and the slicing blade edge.

When the machine is to be used, a block of wood 37 is inserted in the wood carrier and feeder between the feed rolls 8. The block is moved down until it is in engagement with the tables 9 and upper surface 21 of the gate frame cross bar 6. It is to be assumed that the slicing blade 19 and the slitting blade 20 have already been put into position and properly adjusted. The gate frame is then caused to oscillate in the normal manner, so that the knife 19 will cut a shaving of predetermined thickness from the bottom side of the block. As the slitting points 30 of the scoring blade 20 move ahead of the cutting edge knife 19, the underside of the Wood is scored to divide it into a plurality of narrow strips having the width of the space between adjacent slitting points. As can be seen from FIG. 2, the wood will be scored to a greater depth than the thickness of the shaving to be taken from it due to the inclination of the tooth edge 29, and the fact that the knife cutting edge is positioned back from the slitting points of the blade 20. As the entire leading edges of the channels 31 are cutting edges, strips of predetermined cross section will be positively cut from the wood block. These individual strips must pass through the opem'ngs defined by the closed top channels, and no strip of greater cross section than the openings can get through the openings to enter the finished product. It is evident, therefore, that each piece of the excelsior cut from the wood and entering the final product will be sized so that the resulting product will contain excelsior strips of great uniformity.

If the machine is equipped with the transverse cutter 13, the excelsior will be of short length, with each length being a fraction of the total length of the wood block. If, on the other hand, the machine does not have the 4 transverse cutter, each strip of the excelsoir will be the length of the block from which it was cut. In both cases however the cross sectional dimensions of the strips will be the same.

It can be seen from FIG. 2 of the drawings that the slicing knife and slitting blade can be adjusted so that the edge of the knife lies at different positions along the tooth edges 29. By retracting the slitting blade 20 and projecting the edge of the slicing knife, the edge of the knife will come closer to the slitting points 30. This would increase the depth dimension of the shaving cut from the block, and decrease the lead of the scoring action over the slicing action. At the same time, it would decrease the depth of the scoring action beyond the cut surface. A reverse adjustment of the knife and blade will result in a thinner shaving being taken from the block, an increase in advance of slitting motion over slicing action, and an increase in depth of slitting beyond the cut surface. In all positions of adjust-ment, however, the knife edge must be in contact with the tooth edges 29 so as to bridge them and complete the opening through which the cut excelsior must pass to merge with the finished product.

While the use of the slitting blade in its particular position in contact with the slicing knife will produce a superior product, the arrangement does not add to the complexity of the machine or its operation. In fact, there is but one slitting blade to adjust instead of the plurality of slitting points, and the slitting blade and slicing knife are easily adjusted and quickly removed or replaced.

While in the above one practical embodiment of the invention has been disclosed, it will be understood that the particular details of construction shown and described are merely by way of illustration, and the invention can take over forms within the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In an excelsior making machine having a reciprocable gate frame and means to hold and feed a wood block toward the gate frame, the improvement comprising, means carried by the gate frame to mount a slicing knife and means forming slitting points in angularly related converging positions, a slicing knife having a slicing edge secured to the mounting means, and means forming slitting points secured to the mounting means with the slitting points in contact with the slicing edge of the slicing knife, whereby wood shavings sliced from a wood block in the machine block holding means by the slicing knife must pass between the slitting points.

2. In an excelsior making machine as claimed in claim 2 wherein, the means forming the slitting points is a slitting blade having a toothed edge, the teeth of the toothed edge being slitting points.

3. In an excelsior making machine as claimed in claim 2 wherein, the slicing knife and slitting blade are each adjustable on the mounting means along planes of convergence of the mounting positions.

4. In an excelsior making machine having a reciprocable gate frame and means to hold and feed a wood block toward the gate frame, the improvement comprising, means on the gate frame forming a pair of spaced and angularly related mounting surfaces converging toward the wood block holding and feeding means, a slicing knife having a slicing edge carried on one of the mounting surfaces with the slicing edge in the direction of convergence of the surfaces, a slitting blade having a toothed edge carried on the other surface with the toothed edge in the direction of convergence of the surfaces and the toothed edge in contact with the slicing edge of the slicing knife, whereby shavings sliced from a wood block on the block holding means by the slicing knife must pass between the teeth of the toothed edge of the slitting blade.

5. In an excelsior making machine as claimed in claim 4 wherein, the slicing knife and slitting blade are mounted upon the respective surfaces for adjustment along the References Cited surfaces in the direction of surface convergence. UNITED STATES PATENTS 6. In an excelsior making machine as claimed in claim 5 wherein, the toothed edge of the slitting blade is at E ga an angle to the plane of the blade equal to the angle 5 between the converging mounting surfaces. DONALD R. SCHRAN, Primary Examiner 

